These reflections are prompted by the episode we happened across on Saturday morning, while away for the holiday weekend. This week's show, on digital photography, does a fine job of introducing the subject, and provides a good, general-interest overview of its various applications. We're shown some consumer-level cameras and given brief demos on how they work, and similar coverage is provided for printers and scanners. We're also introduced to a professional photographer and a digital designer, so we can see the general relevance digital photography has assumed at the high end of the spectrum. Finally, we're given a quick tour of a museum exhibit and some Web sites related to digital photography. All of this is crisply delivered within the show's allotted 30 minutes, and the material seems fresh and up-to-date. An impressive achievement, especially considering the show was originally aired last December!

Stewart Cheifet, the host of "Computer Chronicles" (and the president of its parent company, PCTV), makes the show tick. Cheifet has an extensive broadcast and computer background—he started the program by televising a weekly users group meeting back in 1982—and he is a personable, consumer-friendly guide, with a knack for presenting sometimes complex technology in accessible terms. We do wish he would provide the show's guests with a little more breathing room, however—Cheifet frequently interrupts them in mid-sentence, no doubt to maintain each episode's brisk pace. Cheifet's young sidekick, Giles Bateman, is another of the program's assets. Bateman conducts each episode's "Online Minute," and he manages to pack a lot of useful information into his 60-second Web tours.

In addition to being consumer-friendly, "Computer Chronicles" is friendly to the Macintosh. Every episode opens with a Mac-Netscape screen shot, and Bateman's Web forays are conducted entirely on the Mac. (In the episode we watched, his Mac sported a gorgeous desktop poster of a fog-shrouded valley, so we're guessing Giles is running a beta of OS 8.) What's more, the program often offers a cool, Mac-specific segment—the show on digital photography featured a pro photographer using his PowerBook to transmit digital images to the newsroom. There are plenty of Windows-specific segments, too, of course, but we're glad to see that this long-running, general-interest program continues to give the Mac its due.

It's easy to take "Computer Chronicles" for granted. The program does have a broad, introductory orientation, and it's been around a long time. It also tends to air at odd hours, at least in the U.S. (Some 300 PBS stations carry the show in this country, NBC and CNBC broadcast it throughout Europe, and it appears in some 130 other countries as well.) But this is intelligent, general-interest technology programming of quite a high standard, and we believe you'll find it's worth seeking out.

(Reviewed May 25, 1997)